Café-théâtre

The café theater is a form of cabaret, will be played at the theater in the coffee house. It was created under the name of café- théâtre in Paris in the 1960s.

History

Who founded the Café Theatre, is controversial. The playwright Bernard Da Costa led in 1966 to the Paris Michel Guiton host a performance of his piece Trio pour deux canaris what is commonly seen as the founding date of the Café Theatre. Alternatively, the café theater can be seen as a parallel phenomenon occurring in Paris in the 1960s. The theater form of the Café Theatre is however in 1958 testifies in New York, as the coffee house owner Joe Cino allowed in Greenwich Village young actors to play the theater to his guests - but what usually is regarded as pioneering the Off-Off -Broadway theater, not the Café Theatre.

In Paris there was until 1970 a dozen café theater with high turnover, then there were significantly more. Many coffee house owners discovered the Café Theatre as an attraction for their guests and also the first low entry prices rose now. Rather unknown authors were played at first, it now came to the use of works by established authors such as Beckett, Ionesco and Arrabal. However, the cafe theater never had an avant-garde image, the entertainment was in the foreground. In 1971 one-man shows were characteristic of the form of theater - and especially one-woman shows, with women from the very beginning were formative for the cafe theater.

In the late 1970s there was an institutionalization of the Parisian cafe theater, which was also associated with crises. There were efforts by the government to integrate the Café Theatre in the existing theater system. It should for tax purposes are no longer considered " serving with theater," but as a " theater with a taproom ", whereby the tax would have been no longer restricted to the drinks.

Today, the café- théâtre applicable in Paris as an institution and as a springboard for young actors.

The Paris café theater soon found imitators in other cities. In Vienna Hilde Berger, Götz Dieter Fritsch and reel -founded a café theater ensemble, the café naivety recorded from 1968.

Form

Typical of Café Theatre are small stages and proximity to the audience. The Paris café theater have an average of between 50 and 100 seats. Few have more than 300 seats. These include the Café de la Gare and Le Splendid, which are among the most famous Parisian café theaters.

The French cafes concerts date back to the 19th century. When you stand in contrast to the café theater not the spectacle, but chanson and cabaret performances in the foreground. Other related Café theaters theater forms include the basement theater, the Music Hall and the music hall.